Los Angeles legends My Ruin roar back from the abyss to rage against a world going to the dogs on unapologetically radical ninth album, Declaration Of Resistance.
On January 18, Tairrie B turned 61 years young, ageing, by her own inimitable admission, “not gracefully, but ragefully.” Anyone familiar with the three-and-a-half-decade career trajectory of My Ruin’s livewire vocalist will hardly be surprised at her refusal to go gently into that good night. But 13 years since last LP A Southern Revelation, and five since confiding in K! that she’d shifted focus from writing music to her long-awaited memoir, Declaration Of Resistance is a truly unexpected treat.
Reverberating with urgent anger following the Palpatine-like return of Donald Trump, there’s precious little rust to be shaken off as opening track and lead single Compromised spits vitriol at ‘A cult of chaos and vanity / Malignant pig and fascist muse / Definition of waste, fraud and abuse.’ The Audacity descends into more measured menace, mixing old feminist themes with an ageless message that ‘Youth is not measured by a mirror that shatters / It’s a fire inside and speaking out for what matters.’ Then old friend Jack Osbourne crops up for a leftfield guest spot on aptly-titled, deliciously sludgy highlight True Allies, segueing from rap-rock to really heavy metal.
Blinkered idiots arguing for the separation of music and politics best move along. And MAGA bootlickers should probably keep a safe distance. But fans looking to indulge their righteous anger will surely reverberate with the blunt force of Contempt, Fragile Like A Bomb and Lady Liberty. And although there is plenty here that treads the same ground that socially-conscious American bands from Rage Against The Machine to Body Count have been covering for decades, criticism should be directed at the broken political machine rather than the principled artists still trying to lift us out of the shit.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Body Count, Rage Against The Machine, Kittie
Declaration Of Resistance is out now via Magick Room.
